page_title: Utah Utes
section_title: Football
hierarchical_section_title: Utah Utes / Varsity sports / Football
caption_attribution_description: Rice Eccles Stadium from the MUSS.
context_page_description: The Utah Utes are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent the University of Utah, located in Salt Lake City. They are named after the Ute tribe of Native Americans. The men's basketball team is known as the "Runnin' Utes"; the women's gymnastics team is known as the "Red Rocks".
  Currently Utah competes in the Pac-12 Conference, after it was announced on June 17, 2010, that the Utes would join the conference in all sports, beginning in the 2011–2012 academic year. They are the third Pac-12 member to have previously spent time in the Western Athletic Conference, joining old conference rivals Arizona and Arizona State. They are also the first school to leave the Mountain West Conference since it was formed in 1999.
  Utah offers a total of 19 varsity sports—seven for men, 11 for women, and one coeducational. Baseball, football, golf, and lacrosse are sponsored for men only. Beach volleyball, cross country, gymnastics, indoor track & field, indoor volleyball, outdoor track & field, soccer, and softball are sponsored for women only. Basketball, swimming & diving, and tennis are sponsored for both sexes.
context_section_description: The University of Utah college football program began in 1892.  Their current home stadium, Rice-Eccles Stadium, was built in 1998 on the site of their former home, Rice Stadium. The Utes have a record of 13–4 (.765) in bowl games, which is the highest percentage in the nation for teams who have been to more than ten bowls. They have won twenty-four conference championships, including six in a row from 1928 to 1933 when they were part of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
  After a twenty-eight year stretch of not playing in a bowl game, Utah football experienced a resurgence in the early 1990s under head coach Ron McBride. The Utes played Washington State in the 1992 Copper Bowl, losing to the Cougars 31–28, and reached their peak under McBride when they finished the 1994 season ranked 10th in the Associated Press Top 25 poll and recorded a 16–13 victory over Arizona in the Freedom Bowl. The team was the first Mountain West Conference team, as well as the first team from a BCS non-AQ conference, to play in and win a BCS bowl.
  The Utes have a 104–44 (.703) record since the beginning of the 2000 season. Along the way, Utah engineered an eighteen-game winning streak.  They produced an undefeated season in 2004, when the Utes were 12–0 and became the first school from a Bowl Championship Series non-AQ conference to play in a BCS bowl game, earning them the title of BCS Busters. The Utes played the Big East Conference champion Pittsburgh Panthers in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl, winning 35–7.  The Utes finished the season ranked #4 in the AP poll.  Later that year Alex Smith, who was Utah's quarterback for the 2003 and 2004 seasons, was drafted #1 by the San Francisco 49ers in the 2005 NFL Draft. He became the first player in the state of Utah to ever be drafted first.  This culminated in the University of Utah becoming the first school in history to produce two #1 professional draft picks in the same year when Andrew Bogut became the #1 pick in the 2005 NBA Draft.
  Utah is currently coached by Kyle Whittingham, who took over for Urban Meyer after Meyer left Utah for Florida after two seasons with the Utes. During the 2008 season, Utah again went undefeated with a 13–0 record, which included a 31–17 victory over the Alabama Crimson Tide in the 2009 Sugar Bowl. The Utes finished the season ranked #2 in the AP poll. In Whittingham's seven years the Utes are 65–25 overall and 39–18 in conference play and have won six bowl games (the Emerald Bowl, the Armed Forces Bowl, the Poinsettia Bowl (twice), the Sugar Bowl, and the Sun Bowl).
  On June 17, 2010, the University of Utah officially accepted an invitation to join the Pac-12.
  Notable players to have played for the University of Utah are Pro Football Hall of Fame member Larry Wilson, Super Bowl Head Coach Winner George Seifert, Manny Fernandez, Marv Bateman, Norm Chow, Scott Mitchell, Kevin Dyson, Andre Dyson, Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala, Luther Ellis, Jamal Anderson, Mike Anderson, Bob Trumpy, Roy Jefferson, Paul Soliai, Barry Sims, Sione Pouha, Koa Misi, Chris Kemoeatu, Maake Kemoeatu, Jonathan Fanene, Jordan Gross of the Carolina Panthers, Steve Smith Sr. with the Panthers and Baltimore Ravens, Alex Smith of the Kansas City Chiefs, Sean Smith of the Oakland Raiders, Robert Johnson of the Tennessee Titans and Eric Weddle of the San Diego Chargers.
caption: Rice-Eccles Stadium
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